Born to crusadeOne woman’s battle to wipe out

gobbledygook and legalese

PlainEnglish

Campaign

In May 1971, Chrissie Maher began her campaignfor plain English by attacking the city council for itsgobbledygook. As the council had refused to givepeople clear information about the benefits theywere entitled to, she would simplify thecomplicated jargon.

Growing up in post-war Britain, Chrissie, likemany other children, never had the chance toget a good education. In her mid-teens sheeventually learnt to read and write. ‘I thoughtthat compensation was what made wallpaperpeel off’ explained Chrissie.

Chrissie was rescued from a life of difficulty byher first employer, Harry Deverell, who paid forher to go to night school. ‘If it hadn’t been forHarry, I don’t think Plain English Campaignwould ever have happened’ recalls Chrissie.

By 1971, Chrissie was married with fourchildren and still living in Tuebrook in Liverpoolwhere she had grown up. By then Chrissie hadrealised that even her friends who were welleducated seemed to be struggling tounderstand official information.

The biggest problem at the time seemed to bebenefit forms. People who were desperatelyshort of money were struggling to fill in theofficial forms which would get them financialhelp from the Government.

At that time the only newspapers were thoseproduced by big businesses and written byprofessional journalists. Chrissie tried to getthese newspapers to help her in her quest tohelp local people, but she had little luck.

To combat this, Chrissie and her friendsfounded the UK’s first ‘community newspaper’,the ‘Tuebrook Bugle’. This was at a time beforethe birth of desktop publishing and a greatmystique still surrounded the production ofnewspapers.

By writing the newspaper in plain English,Chrissie and her friends were able to explainthe problems faced by the people of hercommunity and give advice about benefitforms. The incredible success of the TuebrookBugle led to the birth of over 50 other

community newspapers which fulfilled asimilar role. (The Tuebrook Bugle continuedto be published until 1979.)

In 1974, Chrissie went on to create anorganisation called ‘Impact Foundation’. Thisorganisation gave Chrissie the chance to passon the skills she had learnt to people whowere keen to learn communication skills andhow to produce their own newspapers. Evenuniversity students came to the foundation tolearn the skills of typography and how towrite in plain English.

Through her work in the community, Chrissierealised that there were many adults like herwho had not had the chance to learn to readand write properly. At that time the onlyreading materials available for semi-literateadults were books aimed at children. Toovercome this problem Chrissie launched ‘TheLiverpool News’, the UK’s first newspaper foradults with reading difficulties. ‘This papergave adults something they could readwithout being embarrassed’ recalls Chrissie.‘It also proved to be a great way of helpingpeople to understand the problems they werelikely to encounter with the baffling languageused in public information.’

All the original editorial team of TheLiverpool News. From left to right are: MelAkers, Lou Hunt, Don Welch, Tony Hoodand Chrissie Maher.

The Tuebrook Bugle team with the first issue of the newspaper in 1971.

The early years

Gathering momentumBy 1975, Chrissie’s reputation as acampaigner had spread across the UK. Withthis in mind, the newly-formed NationalConsumer Council (NCC) invited her tobecome a member of their team ofcouncillors to help protect the interests ofconsumers. With the help of the NCC, Chrissiewas able to set up the ‘Salford Form Market’in Greater Manchester. At the form market,Chrissie and her colleagues were able to givepractical help with filling in government forms.It also gave Chrissie and her team a greatknowledge of the exact problems that existedin the language and design of official forms.During her time at the form market, Chrissietried everything in her power to enlist supportfor her efforts to put government forms intoplain English.

One of the people who took notice wasProfessor David Donnison, chairman of theSupplementary Benefits Commission. Davidwas keen to make the commission’s formseasier to understand and thought that Chrissiewas just the person to involve in the project.Chrissie and her team then set aboutpreparing a set of demonstration rewrites toprove that official information could be putinto plain English. These new forms wonofficial approval, but the civil service seemedreluctant to put the plain-language versionsinto public use.

A time for actionBy 1979, Chrissie was so dissatisfied with thespeed of progress that she decided she wouldneed to launch a national campaign to forcethe Government and businesses into action.

Together with her daughter, Carol, and somestudents, Chrissie headed for London and theHouses of Parliament. In the centre ofParliament Square, opposite the Houses ofParliament, they set up a table and started to

shred hundreds of atrocious governmentforms. Within minutes police officers werethere to see what all the commotion wasabout. Surrounded by television, radio andnewspaper reporters, a police officer read outa 100-word sentence that was from the 1839Metropolitan Police Act and full of archaiclegalese. Chrissie asked, ‘Does thatgobbledygook mean we have to go?’ Thepolice officer had made Chrissie’s point asforcibly as the shredding itself. Plain EnglishCampaign had been officially founded.

The official launch of the campaign wasfollowed by another bizarre stunt in London.Chrissie, dressed as the GobbledygookMonster, delivered the first copy of thecampaign’s magazine ‘Plain English’ to 10Downing Street. ‘Downing Street is not acircus’ objected the man from theMetropolitan Police, but he let her through tohand in the magazine and a letter to the newPrime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Shredding forms in Parliament Square toofficially launch Plain English Campaign.

Stirring up a hornet’s nestBack at home the real work began. Thepublicity surrounding the launch of Plain EnglishCampaign had stirred up a great deal ofactivity. Many people phoned to offer theirsupport, but the main question seemed to be‘How are you going to get governmentdepartments and big business to use plainEnglish?’

By 1980, Chrissie had found one of theanswers by staging what was to become theannual Plain English Campaign Awards.Trophies went to those organisations who hadtried to communicate clearly and booby prizeswent to those who had produced the mostbaffling public information.

The ‘good’ awards from the campaign becameas precious as the booby prizes wereunwanted. Leaders of organisations sat up andtook notice when their staff were being praisedin public. And the other organisations werestung into action following the arrival of theirbooby prizes and the adverse publicity thatwas generated.

Chrissie gives out tripe as booby prizes atthe Plain English Campaign Awards.

A new eraAnother breakthrough came a year later.Following constant pressure from thecampaign, the Government decided to set up asystematic review of its communications withthe public. This review was headed by SirDerek Rayner, who had been seconded fromthe directorship of Marks & Spencer. With helpand encouragement from Plain EnglishCampaign, the review staff appraised over171,000 government forms. They were ableto get rid of over 36,000 forms which wereoutdated or useless, and to rewrite andredesign over 58,000 others. The initial savingsthis project produced were estimated at £15million. Since that work began in 1982, thesavings nationwide have been estimated atover £250 million. That was the cost ofcumbersome bureaucracy and unclearcommunications. The result of this projectmeant that the public started to receiveinformation which they could understand, andthe Government saved many millions ofpounds into the bargain.

As news of this success spread, many otherorganisations began to take an interest in plainEnglish. Banks, insurance companies and healthorganisations all contacted the campaign tosee if the concept of plain English could helpthem.

Chrissie quickly realised that the campaign hadto be able to do more than just criticise thosewho wrote unclear public information. Thecampaign team had to be able to producepractical plain-language solutions to theproblems.

For many years organisations such as banksand insurance companies had been able to getpeople to buy their services without anyonequestioning what they were buying. Manypeople believed that this was the waydocuments had to be written and that it wasthe reader’s own fault if they didn’t understandthe unfamiliar language being used. ButChrissie’s campaign was beginning to changethe public’s attitude by placing the responsibilityfor poor communication with the writers.People were beginning to stand up and say ‘Wedon’t understand this, what does it mean inplain English?’

Chrissie explained, ‘One of our greatestachievements has been that we have beenable to prove that there is an alternative togobbledygook and legalese. We have shownthat official information and law texts can beclearly written and well designed.’

In 1983, the campaign published a reportcalled ‘Small Print’ to encourage lawyers toclarify the language of consumer contracts.

Chrissie argued that people were less likely todefault on contracts if they were given achance of understanding what theirresponsibilities were. As well as highlightingthe obscure language and poor design ofconsumer contracts, the campaign alsooffered solutions in the form of severalexample rewrites. These rewrites showedthat consumer contracts could be writtenclearly and well designed without losing any ofthe precision that has come to be associatedwith the traditional style of legal drafting.

Moving up a gearBy the mid-1980s, the campaign wasexpanding and becoming widely recognised inthe UK. While it still relied on sponsors to helppay for some of its events, the campaign wasable to remain independent and funded itselfby doing editing and design work for theGovernment and businesses.

In 1985, the campaign set up a plain-Englishexhibition in Whitehall. The Prime Minister andseveral other government ministers attendedthe exhibition. On show were examples ofclear forms and leaflets produced bygovernment departments, together withplain-language documents from banks andinsurance companies. In 1986 the exhibitionmoved to the Houses of Parliament to makesure that all MPs could see the campaign’smessage.

In 1985, Chrissie was awarded the RosemaryDelbridge Memorial Trophy for her campaigningactivities on the plain-English issue.

Chrissie and the Prime Minister at theexhibition in Whitehall.

The Prime Minister attending the exhibitionat the Houses of Parliament.

Health Minister Tony Newton speaking at theopening of the campaign’s ‘Clarity of medicalinformation’ exhibition in London.

Chrissie’s attention then turned to trying toimprove the information people received withtheir medicines. ‘Even from my ownexperiences I realised that a lot could be doneto make this information clearer. Instructionsand warnings were often produced in verysmall print and contained unfamiliar medicaljargon. Also, the messages thatmanufacturers provided sometimes seemed tocontradict the information provided by doctorsand pharmacists’ explained Chrissie. As well asencouraging manufacturers, doctors andpharmacists to clarify information for thepublic, the campaign also funded research intothe language used on drug labels.

In 1987, the campaign introduced a new set ofawards called the ‘Inside Write Awards’. Theseawards were given for the clearestgovernment documents which were intendedto be read by civil servants. Chrissie recalls, ‘Iwas convinced that if we could get civilservants to communicate clearly with eachother then this was bound to improve the waythey communicated with the public. Theseawards also recognised the tremendous effortsof civil servants to adopt the campaign’sprinciples.’

The 1987 Inside Write Awards were presentedby Michael Montague, then Chairman of theNational Consumer Council. Forty-fivegovernment departments sent in a total of 102entries to the competition.

Language on trialAnother major problem which faced Chrissieand her team was the language, structure anddesign of legislation and regulations. Hundredsof years of tradition had created an almostimpenetrable legal language which evenlawyers struggled to understand. If Acts ofParliament didn’t provide a clear statement ofthe law, it was very difficult for lawyers toexplain the law to civil servants, businesses orthe public. But legal drafters faced a greatdilemma. In many cases they had to explainvery difficult concepts in a very precise way.Should they try to use clearer language andrisk losing the legal certainty that theyassociated with traditional drafting? Eventoday, after major efforts by plain-languagegroups such as the campaign, this is still indispute.

It would be fair to say that many lawyers wereupset with Chrissie’s campaign. They wronglyfeared that Chrissie was trying to put them outof business, that the prestige of theirprofession would be undermined, and thatadopting a plain-language approach would leadto chaos.

Sharing skillsBy 1988, the campaign had trained thousandsof people in how to write letters and reports inplain English. Training courses had been run forthe Government, local councils, healthauthorities, banks, building societies, insurancecompanies, manufacturers, managementconsultants, computer firms, lawyers, policeforces and even other pressure groups.However, as the demand for training increased,the campaign’s staff simply couldn’t run all thecourses they were asked to. To help meet thisdemand, Chrissie launched ‘The Plain EnglishCourse’.

Chrissie argued that these fears wereunfounded. ‘Lawyers will always be needed toexplain when everyday language can be usedand which words have a specific legal meaning.In the past, lawyers have been accused ofusing convoluted language merely to baffle andovercharge their clients. But if lawyers adoptedour principles when writing to clients and whenthey drafted law text, I believe that the public’sperception of the legal profession wouldimprove. Many lawyers still believe thatplain-language documents are ‘unsafe’ but,unlike traditionally drafted legal documents,none of those that we have worked on haveever had to be presented in court forinterpretation. Many lawyers also failed torealise that a plain-language approach toproducing law texts involved much more thansimply getting rid of archaic legal language.’

This was a major pack of worksheets,guidance notes and other materials whichtrainers within organisations could use to traintheir own staff. The introduction of this coursemeant that far more writers were able to learnplain-English techniques.

By 1989, the campaign had reached its 10thbirthday and was being consulted by nearlyevery major organisation in the UK. Tocelebrate the campaign’s 10th birthday,Chrissie and her team returned to ParliamentSquare in London to shred some moreatrocious documents.

The meaning becomes clearBy the beginning of 1990, Chrissie realisedthat her campaign was well enoughestablished to launch its seal of approval,the ‘Crystal Mark’. The Crystal Mark wasdesigned as another incentive to encourageorganisations to communicate clearly withthe public. Organisations could send theirdocuments to the campaign for approval. Ifthe campaign found that the information ina document was expressed as clearly aspossible, the document would gain thiscoveted mark.

Chrissie falls foul of the law again by shreddingofficial documents in Parliament Square.

The Crystal Mark became firmly established asthe standard all organisations aimed for whenproducing their information. It now appears onover 18000 different documents in the UK, theUSA, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand andSouth Africa.

The Lord Chancellor receives his department’scrystal after gaining a Crystal Mark.

Support from abroad

Chrissie greets some of the overseas delegates.

A month later Chrissie was presenting anexhibition at the European Parliament inStrasbourg. The exhibition highlighted theproblems being created by unclear medicallabelling.

Gopa Mitra from the Proprietary Associationof Great Britain and the campaign’s ChrissieMaher explained the dangers of unclearmedical information to MEPs.

In June 1990, the campaign held its firstinternational conference on plain English – athree-day event in Cambridge. Thediscussions, debates and presentationscovered many plain-English issues, includinglegal language, teaching plain English andgovernment communications. Theconference attracted speakers anddelegates from as far afield as Australia,Canada and the United States of America.

An international campaignAs news of Plain English Campaign’s successspread, Chrissie began to receive more andmore enquiries from organisations in othercountries. ‘Back in 1971 I thought I wasdealing with a purely British problem with theEnglish language’ explained Chrissie. ‘Manyyears later I realised that this was aworldwide problem involving many languages.’As well as dealing with enquiries fromcommercial organisations in other countries,Chrissie began to realise that there were manyother plain-language groups around the worldwith similar aims to the campaign.

Luckily, the campaign had grown large enoughfor its staff to start spreading the messageabroad, with training expeditions as far afieldas Europe, Hong Kong and Australia.

The 1991 Inside Write Awards were presentedby John Ward (left) of the National ConsumerCouncil.

Royally recommendedThe highlight of 1992 was the Inside WriteAwards ceremony held at the Queen ElizabethII Conference Centre in London. HRH ThePrincess Royal presented the awards andspoke with great knowledge about clearcommunication.

Her Royal Highness also presented certificatesto graduates of the campaign’s diploma course.

In May 1993, the campaign returned to theQueen Elizabeth II Conference Centre to holdits second international conference. The issuesdiscussed included plain English in lifeassurance, pensions, document design,government communications, customer care,medical labelling and legal documents. Again,speakers and delegates came from manycountries to share their experiences.

Tom McArthur, editor of the Oxford Companionto English Language, speaking at thecampaign’s second international conference.

Crusade for plain languagereaches the USABy 1993, the campaign had grown tobecome one of the biggest and mostsuccessful plain-language pressure groupsin the world. With 35 full-time staff,including lawyers, language experts anddocument designers, Chrissie felt that thecampaign was strong enough to take itsfight overseas to the United States ofAmerica. So, in October 1993, Chrissie andsome of her team set off on thecampaigning trail to New York andWashington DC. Speaking on radio in NewYork, Chrissie explained how successful thecampaign had been in the UK and how shehoped to encourage similar improvementsin the USA. Campaigners then travelled toWashington DC to make arrangements forthe next international conference to be heldthere the following year.

Chrissie flies the flag in New York.

1993 ended with the 14th annual PlainEnglish Campaign Awards ceremony. Thistime, as well as presenting good awards andthe ‘Golden Bull’ booby prizes, the campaignalso presented a set of media awards and a‘Foot in Mouth’ award. The media awardswere given for the clearest television, radioand newspaper reporting. The Foot in Mouthaward was given to the person responsiblefor the worst gaffe or case of gobbledygookrecorded during a television or radiointerview.

Television news presenter Trevor McDonaldcollects a media award on behalf of ITN’s‘News at Ten’ from the Rt Hon David MellorQC, MP.

As usual, the event was reported in all the UK’smajor newspapers as well as on many radioprogrammes and on television. One of theentries that won a Golden Bull became sopopular as a classic piece of gobbledygook thatit even made the international press. The NHSDirectorate struggled desperately to explainwhat a bed was by producing a 160-worddefinition.

Graham Burgess collects a Golden Bull on behalfof the City of Liverpool’s Housing and ConsumerServices Department from comedian Jack Dee.

1994 began with the announcement thatChrissie was to receive an OBE from HerMajesty Queen Elizabeth II. Chrissieadmitted to being ‘gobsmacked’ when shefound out. ‘Usually it’s me giving outawards to people so it made a greatchange to be on the receiving end’explained Chrissie.

Chrissie with her OBE in the grounds ofBuckingham Palace. (Photograph: CharlesGreen Photography.)

Back to the lion’s den

Mrs Valarie Strachan, Chairman of the Board ofCustoms and Excise, receives a Crystal Markcertificate at the campaign’s exhibition in theHouses of Parliament.

In July 1994, Chrissie and the team wereback at the Queen Elizabeth II ConferenceCentre to celebrate National Plain English Dayand the Inside Write Awards. Governmentdepartments and agencies receivedaccolades from the campaign for the use ofplain English. The campaign marked the dayby launching a new book called ‘Utter Drivel’.This book contains hundreds of examples ofgobbledygook sent into the campaign bymembers of the public, as well as usefuladvice on how to write in plain English.

The 1994 Inside Write Awards were presentedby the Rt Hon William Waldegrave MP.

In October 1994, Chrissie and the campaignteam travelled to Washington DC to host theirthird international conference. To launch theconference, campaigners shredded examplesof gobbledygook from many countries on thesteps of Capitol Hill.

One of the speakers at this conference wasMinistry of Justice spokeswoman Susan deVilliers (pictured below) from South Africa.Susan explained how the new Governmentwas determined to transform the style oflanguage being used in its officialcommunications with the public.

Conference speakers Dr Dennis Kurzon(Israel) and Susan de Villiers (SouthAfrica) enjoy a break with the campaign’sChrissie Maher.

Following the conference, Susan invited thecampaign to bring an international team ofexperts to South Africa in 1995.

Three months later, Chrissie was back at theHouses of Parliament to host anotherexhibition and to meet HRH Prince Philip. Theexhibition was visited by ministers and manyMPs.

1994 ended with the annual Plain EnglishCampaign Awards in London, presented byactress Pam Ferris. ‘By the end of 1994 wewere involved in so many differentplain-language projects that I couldn’t keeptrack of what was going on’ admitted Chrissie.

Television newscaster Peter Sissons collects amedia award on behalf of the BBC’s ‘Nineo’Clock News’ team.

Jennifer Erasmus (centre) from South Africareceives her Plain English Campaign Diplomafrom Chrissie Maher and actress Pam Ferris.

Following pressure from the campaign, 1995saw the introduction of two new Europeandirectives. The first dealt with the informationthat is provided with medicines. The directiveexplained that patient-information leafletswould now have to be provided with mostpharmaceuticals. It also required informationto be written in ‘clear and understandableterms’. The second directive concerned thelanguage used in consumer contracts. Thisdirective was intended to put a stop toconsumer contracts that were unfair,contained terms that were oppressive, orcontained terms that were difficult tounderstand.

In March 1995, Chrissie fulfilled her promiseto send an international team of experts toSouth Africa to help the new Government inits attempts to get rid of gobbledygook andlegalese in public information. Campaignersspent two weeks talking with a wide varietyof people including MPs, lawyers, academics,civil servants, consumer-group representativesand insurance company executives.

The international team included:

• Christopher Balmford from Phillips FoxSolicitors in Australia;

• Professor Shadrack Gutto, University of theWitwatersrand, South Africa;

• Professor Joseph Kimble from the ThomasM Cooley Law School in the USA;

• Philip Knight, a lawyer specialising in clearlegal drafting from Canada; and

• George Maher and Janet Millner from PlainEnglish Campaign.

The Ministry of Justice also held a two-dayseminar called ‘Plain language – the law andthe right to information’. This gave theinternational team the chance to meet theGovernment’s legal experts who would bedrafting the new legislation and the newconstitution.

Some of the team speaking at the two-dayseminar in Cape Town.

Chrissie’s son, George, talking on a two-hourlive radio interview in Johannesburg.

During their visit, members of theinternational team were asked to prepare ademonstration plain-language rewrite of theHuman Rights Commission Bill that could actas a model for future South African legislation.After the visit, Chrissie was able to provide£20,000 to fund an intensive research projectto test this plain-language rewrite. Chrissiewas keen to show lawyers that theplain-language approach provided a moreunderstandable statement of the law withoutlosing legal certainty.

School-leavers get working onjargon

Moira Renwick of Manweb and Sybil Law ofScottishPower on the Miami conference set.

Following National Plain English Day and InsideWrite Award celebrations in 1995, the teamtravelled to Miami, Florida, for its nextinternational conference. It attractedplain-language experts from many countries.

Chrissie’s attention then turned to trying tohelp students combat bureaucratic language.The Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit inLondon had published research which showedthat sloppy letter-writing was costing the UK£6 billion a year as a result of mistakes,inefficiency and lost business. Following twoyears of research, the campaign put together atraining course for schools and colleges.Chrissie realised that when young people gointo their first jobs it is very tempting for themto adopt the traditional bureaucratic style ofwriting. She also believed that people withplain-language writing skills would find it mucheasier to find jobs. With growing concern overpoor writing, reading and numeracy skills, thismove was widely welcomed by teachers andcurriculum advisers.

Campaigners then travelled to Winnipeg,Manitoba, to speak at an internationalconference, ‘Plain Language in Progress’,organised by plain-language experts inCanada.

Speakers at the opening session of the ‘PlainLanguage in Progress’ conference in Canada.

The following month the team was on thecampaigning trail again, visiting minsters andMPs in Ghana, West Africa, to encourageorganisations there to communicate in plainlanguage.

Campaigners visit MPs at Parliament House inGhana’s capital city, Accra.By November 1995, the campaign team hadreached San Sebastian in the BasqueCountry (Spain) to speak at a conferencecalled ‘Improving communication betweenadministration and citizens’. This gavecampaigners the chance to pass on theirexperiences to over 140 language expertsfrom the administrative governments.

Speakers at the first session of the Basqueconference.

A new Miami sound

Achievements honouredIn November 1995, Chrissie (shown below,front row, far left) was awarded an honoraryMaster of Arts degree from ManchesterUniversity in recognition of her contributionto improving the lives of so many people.

At about the same time, Chrissie was able toprovide the Consumer Congress Trust with£20,000 funding to carry out a researchproject called ‘Now we’re talking’. The reportset out a series of recommendations toencourage public-service organisations tocommunicate more effectively withconsumers.

The year ended with the annual Plain EnglishCampaign Awards in London. Again,organisations were given credit for producingclear, plain-language documents and Chrissiehad fun chastising those organisations whichproduced the year’s most baffling publicinformation.

The 1995 awards were presented by singerand actress, Toyah Wilcox.

Spreading the word1996 began with campaigners travelling backto Accra in Ghana. On their visit to Accra,campaigners came across an orphanage inthe village of Akorabo. The village had noelectricity or fresh water. After a request forhelp from the village elders, Chrissie launchedan appeal to raise money to drill wells for thevillage. The campaign raised over £12,000and the construction of the wells wascompleted in July 1996. With the help ofschools and churches, the campaign wasalso able to send 35 boxes of clothes,shoes, toys and writing materials to theorphanage.

Viv Lumsden of Scottish Television presents aprize to the pupils of Hillhead High School.

A light at the end of the tunnelNovember 1996 saw the start of a majorplain-English project. Following a report fromthe Inland Revenue in 1995, the Chancellor ofthe Exchequer, the Rt Hon Kenneth ClarkeMP, announced a project to rewrite InlandRevenue tax laws in plain English.

This ongoing project was of majorimportance and lightened the bureaucraticburden that was previously placed on thetaxpayers of the UK. (The first legislationprepared by the Inland Revenue’s Tax LawRewrite Project was enacted as the CapitalAllowances Act 2001. That act was wellreceived and is regarded as a significantimprovement on the previous legislation interms of its clarity and user accessibility.)

The Gobbledygook Monster being chased awayfrom Grey’s Monument in Newcastle.

A tale of 17 citiesApril 1996 saw the start of the first PlainEnglish Campaign Roadshow. Over a period ofseven months, campaigners visited 17 cities tospread the plain-language message. Localnewspapers, radio and television covered thevarious events, which included chasing theGobbledygook Monster out of town and aslogan competition for schools. Pupils from thewinning schools received their prizes fromwell-known personalities.

Plain English Awards 1997

Nick Underwood collects his Foot in Mouthaward from Edward Enfield at the Plain EnglishCampaign Awards ceremony in December 1997.

Winners of the campaign’s 1997 awardsgathered in London to collect their boobyprizes and awards from television presenterEdward Enfield.

The winner of the Foot in Mouth award forthe worst gaffe in the media went to NickUnderwood of Teletubbies Marketing.

He was reported in the Daily Express assaying, ‘In life, there are all colours and theTeletubbies are a reflection of that... Thereare no nationalities in the Teletubbies — theyare techno-babies, but they are supposed toreflect life in that sense.’

Fifth international conferenceThe campaign’s fifth international conferencetook place in London in July 1997. Speakersand delegates from the UK, the USA, Canada,Hong Kong, Sweden and the Basque region ofSpain gathered to hear news of plain-languageprojects from around the world.

In most cases, we were able to look atreal-life examples of how organisations hadbeen able to apply plain-language principles totheir documents. One of the highlights of theconference was a speech made byCommissioner Isaac C Hunt of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA.He explained the cultural change that the SECis trying to foster and its plans for the future.

Chrissie and BAeAM’s Senior Legal Adviser,Paul Briggs, show the ‘before and after’versions of the lease.

Chrissie collects her honorary doctorate fromDr Sharon Goodman from the Open University.

Open UniversityIn May 1997, Chrissie was pleased to attend aceremony at Preston Guildhall to receive anhonorary doctorate from the Open University.

New lease takes flightMarch 1998 saw the launch of one of thecampaign’s most successful projects — tooverhaul a very complex and traditional-stylelegal document.

British Aerospace asked us to work with theirlegal advisers, Clifford Chance and Allen &Overy, two of the world’s biggest law firms,to create a plain-English version of theircross-border leasing contract.

By the time the final version had beenapproved by the campaign, it had beenreduced to just 50 pages — a third of thelength of the original lease.

The new lease has had some spectacularresults. One of the first transactions madeusing the new lease was for six Airbus A320aircraft. Normally, such a deal would take sixmonths to complete. But with the new lease,the £120 million deal was completed in justthree and a half weeks.

European tourAt the beginning of 1998, we had no ideathat the need for plain language would end uptaking campaigners to four of the sixcontinents within the year.

Our international travels began in May whenChrissie was asked to give lectures inBrussels and Luxembourg for the EuropeanCommission’s Translation Service. They hadbegun their own plain-language initiativecalled ‘Fight the FOG’ to encourage theirauthors and translators to write more clearly.The ‘Fight the FOG’ campaign, timed tocoincide with the UK presidency of theEuropean Union, was part of a wider effort toimprove communication between thecommission and the general public.

Vice President Gore speaking at the launch ofthe Presidential Memorandum.

Trying to turn the tide ofgobbledygookIn June 1998, campaigners were invited toWashington DC to attend the launch of thePresidential Memorandum on plain language.Speaking at the launch, Vice President Goreexplained that he and President Clinton weredetermined to make the Government moreresponsive, accessible and understandable inits communications with the public. He alsoexplained how a huge amount of taxpayers’money was being wasted becausegovernment agencies were failing to makethemselves understood.

The memorandum was developed by aninter-agency group of plain-languageenthusiasts, the Plain English Network (PEN).The network, which is part of theNational Partnership for ReinventingGovernment, also gives advice togovernment agencies that want to createplain-language documents.

Campaigners meet US plain-languageenthusiasts. Left to right: Professor Joe Kimble(Thomas M Cooley Law School), Annetta Cheek(Plain English Network), Greg Bittle(Department of Veterans Affairs), and KatherineArdern and George Maher (Plain EnglishCampaign).

Campaigning in South AfricaIn September 1998, campaigners were ontheir travels again following an invitation tospeak at the English Academy Conference inJohannesburg. The conference broughttogether many language experts fromcountries as varied as the UK, theUSA, Australia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.

John Wild (centre) with keynote speakersProfessor David Crystal (left) and Dr TomMcArthur (right).

In October 1998, campaigners began ajourney that they will probably never get achance to repeat. At the invitation of variousorganisations in different countries,campaigners George Maher and John Wildtravelled around the world — literally.

Their expeditions began when they travelled toIndia. As part of the 50-year celebrations ofthe establishment of the British Council in India,Plain English Campaign was invited to run aseries of seminars, workshops and pressconferences in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad,Chennai and Calcutta.

Around the world in 28 days

The trip, which was funded by the campaign,was part of a plain-language initiative set upby the UK’s Centre for Innovation in VoluntaryAction (CIVA). That initiative aimed toimprove the clarity of public information inIndia.

Spokesman for CIVA, Michael Norton OBE,commented, ‘The Plain English Campaign hashad a significant impact on the language ofofficial and business language in the UK. Wehope that the campaign’s visit will stimulatethe development of something similar in India.’

John Wild explained, ‘We were very careful tostress that, although some of the publicinformation in India seemed very tortuous andconvoluted to us, we wanted the Indianpeople to tell us if they were of the sameopinion. The last thing George and I wanted tobe accused of was dictating to India whatwas, or was not, plain.’

Campaigners George and John with workshopdelegates in Hyderabad.

From Delhi, George and John then travelled toTexas (via Tokyo, Los Angeles and Denver).There they spoke to delegates at a conferenceorganised by the Association of BusinessCommunication. From Texas, George andJohn then travelled home to complete theirtrip around the world.

Crusade reaches South AmericaIn November 1998, campaigners were backon a plane, this time heading for São Paulo,Brazil, to carry out a series of seminars. Overfive events in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,campaigners spoke to more than 150 lawyersand other professionals. As far as we know,this was the first time a plain-language teamhad visited South America.

The trip had been organised by Dominic Minett,a lawyer and a director of Lex EnglishLanguages Services based in São Paulo.Dominic was keen to find out if businesses inBrazil could benefit from adoptingplain-language principles.

Their first stop was a seminar for Tozzini FreireTeixeira e Silva, the second biggest law firm inSouth America. At the end of the seminar,delegates explained that the general principlesof communicating in plain language seem toapply just as much to the Portugueselanguage as to English.

Campaigners with some of the delegates fromthe law firm of Tozzini Freire Teixeira e Silva.

Dominic explained, ‘Portuguese is well knownfor being flowery and overly complicated, andthe difference between the spoken andwritten forms of the language couldn’t begreater. I know that since George and Johnspoke at the first seminar, Tozzini Freire haveinvited a journalist from one of our mostrespected newspapers to speak on plainPortuguese, so their reaction has been verypositive.’

Pensions made clearIn April 1999, Pensions Minister, StephenTimms, backed Chrissie’s efforts to clarifyinformation about pensions.

The minister spoke at the launch of thecampaign’s new guides to pensions, which hadbeen produced to give consumers a betterunderstanding of the baffling terms used by thepensions industry. Caroline Instance, ChiefExecutive of the Occupational PensionsRegulatory Authority, and StephanieHawthorne, Editor of ‘Pensions World’magazine, also spoke at the launch to endorsethe new guides.

Literacy hourIn March 1999, the campaign began a newinitiative to raise the profile of plain Englishwithin the UK’s education system. In responseto the Education Minister’s recommendationsto begin a ‘literacy hour’, one of the campaign’squalified teachers began giving lessons in plainEnglish to both primary- and secondary-schoolpupils.

Campaigners with delegates from Pasqualin, alaw firm in Brazil.

Pensions Minister Stephen Timms at the launchof the campaign’s pension guides.

Latin terms get the deathsentenceApril 1999 also saw one of the biggestshake-ups of the century for the civil justicesystem in England and Wales.

Based on Lord Woolf’s 1996 report, ‘Accessto Justice’, the reforms revolutionised theway cases in the civil courts are conducted.They also swept away Latin phrases andmuch of the centuries-old legal language.

The changes were designed to cut delays,complexity and the cost of litigation. Thisshould result in making our civil justicesystem more accessible to the general public.

The changes, part of the ‘big bang’ in civillegal procedure, were being driven through bythe Lord Chancellor’s Department. Aspokesman for the department explained, ‘Ithas been obvious for some years that ourlegal system is too slow, too expensive andtoo complicated for most people to use.People can’t afford to go to court, and peoplewho do get their day in court can’tunderstand what the judges and lawyers aresaying. So we’ve tried to make thingscheaper, clearer and faster.’

Chrissie commented at the time, ‘This maybe our greatest victory yet. For everysuccess we’ve had, we were always told thatit was a shame you’ll never sort out thelawyers. Well, maybe we have now. The laststronghold of gobbledygook is starting tocrumble.’

Training in BrusselsJuly 1999 saw our campaigners back inBrussels to run training courses for the ECTranslation Service. John Wild explained, ‘Thedelegates were all qualified trainers in theirown right but they wanted to make surethat they understood all the principles ofplain language and would not be missing anytopics out when they ran their own trainingcourses.’

Plain English Campaign’s John Wild withmembers of the EC’s Translation Service.

Los Angeles Conference 1999In November 1999, George and John wereback in the USA to speak at the Association ofBusiness Communicators’ conference, this timein Los Angeles. The association has about 1300members who are mostly language teachersand trainers in effective businesscommunication.

John with conference delegates Jone Rhymer,Paula Pomerenke and Iris Varner.

Plain language in progressBy February 2000, campaigners were off againto attend the Plain Language In ProgressConference in Houston. The conference wasorganised by the international Plain LanguageConsultants Network. It brought togetherexperts from Canada, the USA, the UK,Sweden, South Africa and Australia. There,our representatives met all the ‘usualsuspects’ — the ever-present Professor JoeKimble from America, Professor Peter Buttfrom Australia, and barrister Phil Knight fromCanada. These are the type of people whonever give up, tirelessly promoting plainlanguage wherever they go.

The day after George and John arrived homefrom Houston they were off again. This timeto Helsinki. Plain English Campaign had beeninvited to speak at a plain-Finnish conferenceorganised by journalist Maria Osterlund tocelebrate the 10th anniversary of theplain-language newspaper she works for.

Pioneers honouredIn April 2000, plain-English campaigner ChrissieMaher, disability-rights campaigner Lord AlfredMorris of Manchester, and World Wide Webcreator Tim Berners-Lee were named‘Information Pioneers of the Century’ by theUK’s National Information Forum. Theceremony was held at the House of Lords andthe awards were presented by Glenys KinnockMEP.

Chrissie collects her award from Glenys KinnockMEP.

July 2000 saw George and John setting offhalfway across the world to Australia andNew Zealand.

They had been invited to Australia toaddress the Canberra Society of Editors.There was a lot of media interest in thevisit. After doing various television andnewspaper interviews, George and Johnheaded out to New Zealand.

The campaign had been invited to NewZealand just to give some presentations,but the interest in plain language turned outto be incredible. George and John ended updoing a whole series of television, radio andnewspaper interviews on top of theiroriginal schedule.

From New Zealand they then headed backto Australia. The purpose of that secondvisit was twofold — we had been invited togive a presentation to Microsoft, Australia,about the benefits of plain English, and wealso wanted to arrange a meeting withthree Australian lawyers who are prominentin the global plain-language movement.They were Christopher Balmford, ProfessorPeter Butt, and Robert Eagleson.

In just one year, George and John hadvisited five countries and travelled over54,000 miles.

Championing the causeAs part of our Crystal Clear Day celebrations,which were held in Manchester in June 2000,we announced the first seven ‘Plain EnglishChampions’. These are people from differentwalks of life who have made a great personalcontribution to pushing back the barriers thatface plain-language campaigners.

Professor Joe Kimble collects his award fromPlain English Campaign’s Chrissie Maher.

Plain English Campaign visitRussiaChrissie’s worldwide battle against jargon andlegalese reached new territory in April 2002when the campaign became the firstplain-language group to be invited to Russia.

George Maher and John Wild spoke at amajor journalism and linguistics conferenceorganised by Moscow State University.

The trip, which was funded by the campaign,gave George and John the chance to explainthe need for plain language — whether it beEnglish, French, Portuguese or Russian.

Conference organiser, Irene Alexandrova,explained, ‘One of our biggest problems isthat modern Russian usage is losing its abilityto meet the communication needs of thedifferent sections of our society. Also, in thisnew era of international English, it isimportant that the style of language is asclear as possible. Plain English Campaign hasmade a valuable contribution to making this areality.’

Down under

Plain language in CanadaIn September 2002, the Plain LanguageAssociation International (PLAIN) held its fourthconference in Toronto. Campaigners GeorgeMaher and John Wild were there to explain thehistory of Plain English Campaign and theprogress that was being made in the UK. Theconference included 50 speakers from eightcountries.

In April 2003, George and John returned toMoscow to speak at the Moscow StateUniversity’s international conference,‘Journalism and the culture of speech’.

Founded in 1775, Moscow State University isthe oldest university in Russia. The journalismfaculty has over 2200 students, and around15,000 graduates are now working in themedia industry.

Moscow University

In March 2004, the campaign’s participation inpublic activities involving plain English reachednew heights when we were invited to appear infront of the Parliamentary Select Committeeon open government, chaired by the Leader ofthe House, Peter Haine. We were asked for ouropinions on the standard of communicationbetween Parliament and the general public, andto make our recommendations to improvethem.

Parliamentary Select Committee

Antwerp Conference 2005February 2005 saw campaign staff on theirtravels again, this time to speak at aconference in Belgium. The conference wasorganised by the staff of ‘Wablieft’, theFlemish easy-to-read newspaper for peoplewith reading difficulties. The conference wasalso attended by representatives of otherplain-language groups from Norway,Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Holland.

They were keen to hear about the history ofthe campaign and how we had grown tobecome one of the largest plain-languagegroups in the world.

The aims of the conference were to create apartnership between the plain-languagegroups in European countries and to expandnational centres that provide information forpeople with reading difficulties.

Conference organiser, Karine Nicolay,explained, ‘We are working on starting a ‘plainlanguage centre’ in Flanders and found outabout Plain English Campaign and their yearsof experience in writing plain andeasy-to-read language.

Rather than having to start from scratch, weasked PEC to join us at our conference andteach us all the do’s and don’ts of writingplain language and organising a successfulFlemish centre. All participants of theconference are planning to startplain-language campaigns in their countries.They all appreciated the presentation of PECvery much because they found it highlyinformative but also very enjoyable.’

In the summer of 2006, several leadingpoliticians confirmed their support for thecampaign and the use of plain English.Conservative leader, David Cameron MP,said, ‘All politicians are guilty of slipping intojargon — and all of us deserve scrutiny fromthe Plain English Campaign. Complicated setsof initials, official jargon, bureaucracies thatovercomplicate things to boost their ownimportance — all of these things help to buildbarriers between government and people.’ Healso congratulated us on all we haveachieved to date.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the leader of theLiberal Democrats, said, ‘The hard work ofthe Plain English Campaign to draw attentionto this significant issue has been paramountin the improving English standards.’

We also received messages of support frombroadcaster Andrew Marr, and the FirstMinister of Scotland, Jack McConnell. MrMcConnell said, ‘Plain English Campaign hasbeen quick to remind us of the importance ofstraightforward language. Keep up the goodwork.’ Former Liberal Democrat leaderCharles Kennedy also sent a message,saying, ‘The English language is without doubtone of our most cherished national andinternational resources. It is functional andfulfilling in equal measure. We need to keep itthat way in the political discourse of ournational life.’

Words of support

Delegates at the Antwerp Conference.

In October 2007, Plain English Campaign,along with our European plain-languagepartners (Grundtvig), met otherplain-language organisations from acrossEurope to discuss ‘easy-to-read’programmes. The meeting was in Frankfurt’snew Stadbucherei (public library).

Frankfurt

Korean TV visits the UK

In August 2007, two journalists from a Koreantelevision station put Plain English Campaignunder close scrutiny for two days.

The two journalists, accompanied by atranslator for Munhwa BroadcastingCorporation, were making a documentary onhow the campaign’s work has increased theuse of plain language in public life. Theyinterviewed Chrissie on how campaigning fordocuments which are easy to understand hashelped many thousands of people to leadmore straightforward lives.

When in Rome

Our trainer, John Wild, ran a demonstrationcourse in June, followed by a series of trainingcourses in October and November. All thecourses were well received.

Plain English Campaign went to the House ofCommons on Monday 17 November 2008to voice our support for Nick Palmer’s SmallPrint Bill.

If the bill becomes law, it will mean that thereis a minimum size for the print used in:

• terms and conditions;• advertisements; and• contracts to supply goods and services.

Peter Rodney, our plain-English barrister, whowrites legislation for the Government ofGibraltar, opened the event. He introducedthe speakers, TV presenter Matthew Parris,and journalist Nicholas Jones.

Matthew gave a penetrating insight into howsmall print can confuse and mislead people.He gave many examples from the worlds ofpolitics and industry, and the listeners wereenthralled. Nick followed with his ownoutlook on how politicians, lawyers, themedia and many others use ‘spin’.

The Small Print Bill

Delegates and students in Frankfurt.

John Wild (pictured at the front) with some ofthe trainees in Rome.

The campaign extended its internationalactivities considerably in 2007. We wereasked to bid for a contract to run a series ofplain-English training courses for a UnitedNations agency, the International Fund forAgricultural Development (IFAD), in Rome.Chrissie said, ‘Even though we were upagainst stiff international competition, IFADdecided to award us the contract because ofour experience in training delegates whohave English as their second language.’

Plain-English barrister Peter Rodney viewingour exhibition.

In 2008, as part of the Liverpool EuropeanCapital of Culture celebrations, the LordMayor, Steve Rotheram, was our guest ofhonour at a reception to launch the PlainEnglish Campaign exhibition at LiverpoolTown Hall. The comprehensive exhibitioncovered almost 40 years of campaigning,from the days of the Tuebrook Bugle to ourpresent activities.

We invited the audience to ask questions andthey came thick and fast. Peter, Matthew andNicholas answered the questions with honestyand passion, and the answers led to more andmore questions. One question was ‘Why isn’tthe Government supporting this bill?’

Chrissie pictured with Lord Mayor, SteveRotheram, at Liverpool Town Hall.

Liverpool European Capital ofCulture 2008

20 children representing the Liverpool Schools’Parliament were in the audience to questionMPs and our speakers. In the break they wereshown the exhibition displaying Plain EnglishCampaign’s story in pictures. They wereshown its roots in the poverty and deprivationof wartime Liverpool through to its worldwideimpact today. It was a dramatic display ofhow someone with enough determination, likeChrissie, can overcome the most direcircumstances to make a real difference topeople’s lives.

Some of the schoolchildren and students at ourexhibition.

The arrival of Liverpool’s Lord Mayor, CouncillorSteve Rotheram, reminded visitors what aprestigious event this was. His speechacknowledged the personal contributions ofChrissie and other fellow ‘scousers’ who hadhelped the campaign to grow.

Another shining star to come out of Liverpoolwas John Barnes, ex-footballer for Liverpooland England and now coach to Jamaica’snational team.

His easy-going manner and brilliant speechkept the event firmly ‘grassroots’.

Lucy van Amerongen, author of ‘The A-Z ofTeen Talk’, attended the event to show thateven the younger generation is interested ingetting their message across.

To round off, we were given a debutperformance by Kofu Owusu, a youngLiverpudlian musician who had beencommissioned to write a rap about thesentiments of plain English.

Kofu Owusu, Chrissie, Lucy van Amerongen,Lord Mayor Steve Rotheram and John Barnescut the Plain English Campaign cake.

‘Born to Crusade’commemorates thecampaigning spirit of anordinary working-classmother who came fromLiverpool, England, to take onthe world. In 1971, ChrissieMaher asked a simplequestion – ‘Why isn’t thepublic given a chance tounderstand publicinformation?’

‘To keep them in the dark.’‘To stop them claiming whatis rightfully theirs.’ ‘To stopthem interfering in thingsthey wouldn’t understand.’Chrissie got many answersbut none that she could justify to the people of hercommunity. Many before her must have asked thesame question but given up hope of changing anything whenfaced with the huge task of taking on governments and bigbusinesses. Maybe out of blissful ignorance, or with nothingto lose, Chrissie thought she’d try.

From her first attempts to help people, to the present daywhere she runs an international campaign, Chrissie has had aburning ambition: ‘Let us try to put people in control of theirown lives. Give them a chance to understand their rightsand responsibilities, and let them understand what is beingdone in their name.’

As Tom McArthur, editor of the Oxford Companion to theEnglish Language, explained, ‘In all the history of thelanguage, there has never been such a powerful grass-rootsmovement to influence it as the Plain English Campaign, andChrissie is the one who got it going.’

Plain English Campaign — working for clearer communicationPO Box 3, New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK22 4QPPhone: 01663 744409 Fax: 01663 747038Email: info@plainenglish.co.ukWebsite: www.plainenglish.co.uk